2000s: The First Decade — 9/11 echoes in Utah

The First Decade: A new millennium was born amid concerns about the Y2K bug. Far more real fears unfolded on Sept. 11, 2001. For the next eight days, Deseret News and Associated Press writers in a series of essays will examine the great developments of the past decade and their impact on Utah and beyond.

When the United States of America went to sleep on Sept. 10, 2001, it was with the peaceful slumber of a toddler, surrounded by all the toys, secure in the promise of a new day that would be much like all the others.

The country awakened to a scary, different world, one in which our playpen, our home, had been violently rattled by angry strangers, innocence was stripped, and nothing would ever, ever be quite the same.

Terrorists, in vanquishing the Twin Towers, became the unwelcome architects of a new city skyline in New York. The Pentagon, our bastion of military might, was crippled on 9/11.

Long before the debris would be cleared, and long before the tears would dry, a new America would totter with the realization of 2,976 dead. On our doorstep.

Over the days to follow, as the numbers rolled in, police, firefighters and other emergency responders would become our new, once-again heroes. A total of 411 died responding to the World Trade Center attack.

In despair, however, there was hope, and a betrayed America became a determined America.

We hung onto the last words of Todd Beamer, a passenger on hijacked Flight 93 who simply said, "Are you guys ready? Let's roll."

Thousands of miles away and eight years later, Utah still "rolls" in a post 9/11 era.

Enlistments in the Utah National Guard, the Army and Army Reserve surged in the days and months following the attacks.

At any given time, Hill Air Force Base has upward of 500 people deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, which have topped a trillion dollars in financial costs.

And there are costs closer to hearts than pocketbooks — the cost of 51 men and one woman with Utah ties who have died fighting the "war on terror."

For its part, the Utah National Guard has seen itself transform from a part-time, civilian-centric organization into a military group dominated by a frenetic pace of deployments that rival its active duty counterparts.

"The world we live in has changed," said Maj. Gen. Brian Tarbet. "For the soldier who enlists today, it is not a question of if I will be deployed but when I will be deployed."